My Pretty
by bigfatcarp93 mk2
Summary: A Volume 4 one-shot depicting Ruby meeting Salem for the first time.
1. Chapter 1

Ruby Rose sprinted through the forest in a swirl of wind and rose petals, one hand on the sheathed Crescent Rose, just to be prepared. She was worried about Grimm, but knew she was unlikely to be intercepted; she was too fast, and too quiet.

She skidded to a stop, her feet throwing up a shower of black soil as she hunkered down and came to rest next to a large redwood, resting her hand against the trunk and catching her breath. She allowed herself to let go of her weapon as she panted in exhaustion and looked around. It was nighttime, and the surrounding trees were still and quiet. Ruby's mind, meanwhile, was anything but.

An hour ago, she had picked up a lead that her targets were out here, in this forest. Jaune, Nora and Ren had been misled; they were off on a wild goose chase that Ruby had just found out was a false trail, too late to warn them not to go. She had been left with a choice: go after her quarries alone, or find her friends and risk giving the villains enough time to get away clean. She had chosen the former. They couldn't escape again. Not after Vale.

 _You're being reckless again, and you know it_ , said her inner Weiss. _You can't beat them in a fight, not on your own. Not even close._

Ruby knew that was true. So she wouldn't fight them. Once she found her targets, she would watch, and follow, and be patient. She would find a way to contact the others... and then... they would improvise. But for now, the most important thing was that they not get away.

She stood up again, brushing a bit of dirt off her knees, and got moving once more. She was going fast, but not using her semblance. That was _too_ fast. She needed to play closer attention now, and see if she could pick up a trail.

"Come on, come on..." Ruby muttered under her breath, scanning the ground as she jogged through the woods, leaping over rocks and fallen trees. She had picked up many Grimm trails in the past, in the woodlands of Patch, but this was the first time she had ever tried to track humans.

Finally, there was success. Ruby stopped on a section of open ground between some ferns and looked down. Drawing her scroll, she activated the light and examined the ground closely to be sure. A set of human footprints, made with thin, high-heeled shoes. _Emerald, maybe,_ thought Ruby. She looked around, waving the light over the ground and pushing aside more ferns until she located a second pair of tracks, demonstrating large, heavy boots with a tiny hole in the center. _Mercury, for sure!_ she thought triumphantly. _And where there's smoke, there's fire..._

It didn't take her long to locate the third set of tracks; heels again, but a bit deeper, either because the person making them was heavier, or because the shoes themselves had been made with a more solid, less pliable substance. Like glass.

 _Cinder._

Ruby stared at the footprints. The distinct _clink, clink_ sound of Cinder walking echoed in the back of her mind, along with the common sense that she now heard in Weiss's imaginary voice. _You don't really know that this was them. Not technically._

"No." She said outloud. "I know. They were here."

Ruby took one last look around, dimmed her light a bit, and began to follow the tracks.

 _clink. clink. clink._ Cinder walked calmly along the stone, the night breeze sifting through her hair as she examined the ancient temple. A tiled stone floor, large, worn columns... it was all exactly as she remembered it. Emerald and Mercury were still back at the flight of ancient, eroded stairs leading up to the raised temple floor, a solid five feet above the forest ground below. They watched apprehensively as their boss walked over to one of the pillars, closed her golden eyes, and ran a hand across the rough stone, feeling.

Mercury, carrying a burlap bag over his shoulder, looked at Emerald, but she simply shrugged, just as lost as he was. Cinder kept running her hand across the stone, as though she were searching for something. After almost a minute of this, she paused, and smiled. "Ah..." she said in her usual warm, seductive tone. "Good. This site's still active." She turned and looked at Mercury. "Do you still have them?"

"Yep." he shook the bag.

"Good. Bring them through here."

She walked away through an archway in the temple, and her henchmen followed, unaware that they were being watched through the scope of a sniper rifle. Ruby was crouched on a large boulder in the treeline, gazing at them. She didn't know what this place was, or why Cinder had come here, and she had a particularly bad feeling about whatever Mercury was carrying in that bag. She shook nervously as she watched them go deeper into the temple and vanish from sight; actually seeing them again was bringing back unpleasant memories of what these three were capable of... the memory of Emerald and Mercury mopping the floor with Coco and Yatsuhashi flitted across her mind. _Just recon, and observe,_ she kept repeating to herself mentally. _Recon and observe, recon and observe..._

Taking a deep breath, she hopped down and began to skirt around the temple, looking for a place to observe from.

It actually didn't take Ruby long to find a perfect spot: between bushes in the treeline, shadowed under a low ginkgo, and raised a bit up on a knoll, allowing her to see up onto the temple's main floor. She was practically invisible, could see clearly, and was even close enough to hear their conversation if they spoke. It couldn't have been more perfect. Holstering her weapon, Ruby lay down in the bushes and watched.

The villains had found their way to a large, open area of the temple, most of the floor of which was overgrown with a covering of thick, dark green moss, with some grass poking up here and there. But the most significant thing that Ruby could see was a gigantic stone archway, which seemed to go nowhere, and was adorned with a symbol, carved into the keystone and painted in ancient red. It reminded Ruby a bit of an eye.

Cinder was looking around the site, hands on her hips. "This is it. Set them up in the _exact_ configuration I showed you." Mercury opened the bag, and he and Emerald both reached it- Ruby watched intently, but was relieved (and maybe a _teensy_ bit disappointed) to see them merely pull out some candles. The deadly duo began lighting the candles and setting them up, taking more and more out of the bag as they went. It seemed they had brought dozens.

Cinder walked around the site, watching them as they worked. "Now, remember:" she said, somewhat more forcefully than usual. "You will show respect and deference. You will speak only if spoken to, no exceptions. You will remain in your bowing positions unless ordered otherwise. You will follow any and all instructions you are given _immediately_ and without question. Is this clear?"

"We understand." said Emerald in a somber tone.

Ruby was confused, but kept watching in silence. Cinder was now donning a silver amulet from the bag, depicting an undamaged crescent moon. She then drew forth another silver artifact: a circlet, to be worn on the brow, also depicting the undamaged moon, and in three phases: waxing, then full, then waning. She treated both objects with an almost religious reverence, applying both to her person very carefully. To Ruby's eyes, it looked almost as though she were preparing some kind of spell or ritual.

Finally, the candles were complete: they took the configuration of a huge circle containing a five-pointed star. Up above, the eyelike symbol on the arch began to glow a dark, bloodlike red. It was starting to get very cold out... Ruby drew her hood over her head. Mercury and Emerald were taking positions: each got to their knees within one of the "legs" of the triangle, bowing their heads respectfully. Cinder stepped into the center of the pentagram, looking up at the arch. She raised her arm, pointing her palm at the center of the archway, before a smooth, long white glove appeared from thin air on her arm.

Ruby stared in surprise, wondering how Cinder had done that. She hadn't seen the glow of any dust, and it didn't look like a semblance...

The same symbol from the archway was depicted on the back of the glove. There was an odd sound, almost like the shriek of a strange creature crossed with the screaming of a woman, and a shimmering, swirling veil of dark red and black energy filled the arch. The temple was getting yet colder, and the inky sky above suddenly turned dark, blood red. Ruby looked around in fear, hoping the increased light wouldn't give away her position. But the way the branches in front of her were positioned, it was impossible for her to be seen from the temple.

She was also getting a bad feeling she couldn't explain. Somewhere, deep inside her tummy, there was this... not cold. Something like cold, less harmful... but somehow worse. She thought Emerald and Mercury must have been feeling this as well, because they both tensed up a bit. If Cinder was feeling the same thing, she didn't show it. Ruby watched carefully... and her eyes widened as a dark figure appeared within the vortex.

A figure with glowing red eyes.

Cinder was quick to drop to the same bowing position her minions had assumed. A black-clad foot stepped out of the portal slowly. As soon as it touched down on the mossy ground, all of the moss around it turned grey, withered, and died. This circle of desiccation spread outward from that spot. By the time the woman had stepped out of the archway completely, all of the moss was dead.

Ruby stared in the horror at the person- no. That wasn't right. The _creature_ that had just emerged. It would have looking human, were it not for the pallid, chalky white skin, visible purple veins, and glowing red retinas against jet-black sclera. It wore all black, and an expression of mild amusement.

Salem looked around at the sight that greeted it. Slowly, its head turned, scanning the area, looking over the worn and overgrown temple. Ruby's insides went cold for a moment; she could have sworn the creature's eyes had lingered on her hiding place. Finally, after a lengthy pause, Salem turned its eyes to Cinder.

"Cinder." said Salem in a smooth, cool voice. "You've summoned me."

"Yes, Salem." said Cinder, without looking up. Her own voice lacked its usual silky warmth; she sounded utterly formal. Salem began to walk around the temple, its eyes lighting on Emerald and Mercury. "Why?" it asked.

"We were to give you a report on Mistral, once we were done there."

"So you were. Are these your helpers?"

"Yes."

"Introduce me."

Cinder nodded, even though Salem wasn't looking at her, and stood up, turning to gesture to her two cohorts. "This is Emerald Sustrai. And Mercury Black."

"Emerald and Mercury..." Salem repeated back, continuing to pace around the temple, and gazing at the eroded stone. "Goodness, look at my temple. This one has really gone to seed."

It turned to look at Cinder again, meeting her gaze. "Cinder."

"Yes, Salem?"

"You found this temple by memory? Told no one where you were going? Purchased no maps?"

"Yes."

"And you brought only Mercury and Emerald? Other than them, you came here completely alone?"

"Yes."

"I see. Cinder... do you remember what we spoke about last time? About how you were defeated in Vale by a girl with silver eyes?"

Ruby felt a sudden stab of panic. _It knows._ Cinder looked mildly surprised, but answered quickly and calmly. "Yes, of course. Why?"

Salem pointed to Ruby's hiding place. "Are you aware that she's hiding right there?"

Ruby bolted. Scrambling to her feet as quickly as she could, she turned around and shot through the trees as fast as her semblance would allow, pushing her speed to its limits. She knew that Mercury could move quickly with his boots, and Emerald could get inside her head... and that was without even addressing how lethal Cinder was. Her only hope was to escape before they could even react.

It didn't work. Ruby was most certainly fast enough to leave behind Cinder, Emerald and Mercury, but as she launched herself between trees, moving so fast that her slipstream was actually tearing apart ferns and uprooting bushes, she saw, in a shock, Salem emerge from the shadows between two trees some fifty yards ahead, still smiling calmly. Ruby tried to brake, but wasn't quick enough, as Salem calmly reached out a single hand and grabbed the girl by the face, clamping its clammy fingers tightly over her mouth. The wind behind Ruby shot past the duo, dirt and leaves whipping past through the air.

Ruby reached for her weapon, staring at Salem with wide, panicked eyes. She drew Crescent Rose forth... only for a paralyzing chill to run through her body, striking her limp and numb and causing her to drop her scythe. Crescent Rose thudded to the forest floor, and Ruby hung from Salem's hand, a foot off the ground and unable to move. The trees Salem had emerged from were already dying; their leaves had dropped off and their bark was turning mottled grey, splitting open in places and allowing sickly white sand to pour out. The same fate was starting to befall all of the surrounding plant life.

Salem held onto Ruby, its red eyes meeting her silver ones. "So. You are the one who immobilized my beloved pet." It leaned in close, to whisper. "I'd like to know how you did that."


	2. Trivia & Thanks

Hello everyone! I'd like to thank everyone who followed, favorited or reviewed My Pretty, it means a lot. Due to the positive response it's received, as well as numerous requests for a sequel, I've decided to do just that. I am going to write a follow-up, but it may take some time, as I have several other projects doing the tango in my head right now. What I can say is that the sequel (which will be uploaded as a chapter when I'm done so you don't have to keep checking my profile, don't worry) will be considerably longer and more detailed, and hopefully, scarier.

However, as a treat (At least I hope you find this to be a treat) and thank you for the support, I've decided to do something else in the meantime: put up a bit of behind-the-scenes trivia stuff about the writing of My Pretty, for anyone who's interested in that sort of thing. Think of it as a writer's commentary of sorts. And here we go:

1: I researched actual witchcraft-related imagery to make the summoning scene. For instance, what Cinder is wearing on her head is called a triple goddess circlet, apparently used in neopaganism to denote a priestess, and is silver to imply feminimity.

2: The entire lifespan of coming up with the idea of this fic, writing it, and posting it, took about nine hours. It just popped out of nowhere and I decided to scribble it down as quick as possible and toss it online.

3: There were a couple tidbits that got cut: a scene where Ruby dispatches a few patrolling Grimm, implying their connection to Cinder and Salem, was skipped due to being clunky and interrupting the flow dreadfully. In addition, in the original concept as it popped into my head, the meeting was due to Mercury having a greivance of some kind(we never would have found out what) that he wanted to bring over Cinder's head and to her superiors, so she indulged him and summoned Salem to sort it out. This was scrapped for a number of reasons: too convoluted, too OOC for Cinder (She would just tell him to shut his trap), and gave Salem too much reason to be annoyed, drawing from her mystique.

4: The implication in the story is meant to be that Salem in entirely reliant on very old, very sinister magic, rather then dust, aura or semblance. This is based partially on her obvious witch motif, and my personal headcanon (and a common one) that she is a Grimm, meaning that she would have no aura or semblance, and would be incapable of activating dust.

5: Salem is always referred to as "it" in the story as opposed to "she" or "her", because I felt it was more frightening.

6: Ruby's common sense being presented as an "inner Weiss" was inspired by the "inner Hermione" concept from the brilliant 'Harry Potter and the Nightmares of Future Past', which is an amazing fic. I also liked the idea because Ruby needed a reason to have a bit of dialogue (without that one bit in the forest where she talks to herself, she would have been completely silent for the whole fic, which would have felt odd), and I wanted a slightly stronger good guy presence in this story full of villains.

7: There is SUPPOSED to be a Page Break at the transition to Cinder arriving at the Temple. As anyone who's read my other story, or the attached reviews, knows, this is something that continues to vex me. I swear I'm writing page breaks into this, but they keep getting lost in the process somehow. Fml.

That's all everyone, and thanks again. Stay strong, we'll survive this hiatus together!


	3. My Pretty, Chapter 1

A cold wind sifted through the forest, causing Salem and Ruby's capes to flutter. This part of the forest had a dead, grey appearance, with ferns curling up and shriveling, bushes quickly shedding their leaves, which crumbled to dust. Trees, even some massive, ancient conifers, were crumpling sadly and doubling over as their insides dissolved into dust. With the canopy fading around them, blood-red light from the sky above was beginning to shine down upon the witch and the girl.

Ruby was having trouble breathing. It wasn't the vicelike grip Salem was maintaining on her face- Ruby's nose was still uncovered, after all- it was the paralysis, creeping through her body. Not only could Ruby neither move nor feel her extremities, but it felt almost as though her insides were working at half-capacity; and indeed, her lungs seemed to be refusing to take proper, full breaths, leaving her breathing shallow and her heartbeat frighteningly intermittent.

Salem maintained a serene smile as it turned Ruby's face back and forth, examining her. "Yes..." it said softly. "Silver indeed. Quite a rarity." Salem pulled Ruby close, so their faces were only inches apart. "Am I supposed to be afraid?" it asked. Ruby could say nothing; she could barely even think. She was pretty sure she had just stopped breathing altogether, and was beginning to feel a dull panic rising within her mind.

Something happened then; everything went black, and Ruby could see nothing, just a dark void. The only sound was an uncomfortably loud whooshing, and Ruby felt a horrible compression, like she was being forced through a tube that was _far_ too narrow...

After about three seconds, the unpleasant sensations ended and Ruby was released from Salem's grasp, crashing onto a hard surface and kicking up a plume of dust. Immediately, she began coughing desperately, trying to refill her lungs, while clutching at her chest as her heart danced out painful palpitations. She was vaguely aware of movement and voices around her, but paid no mind as she gasped for air; difficult in the cloud of dust she had kicked up, but possible now that Salem was no longer exerting its malicious influence over her. While still holding her chest, she began feeling around on the ground for her weapon out of instinct, but could not find it.

Regaining a certain amount of sense, Ruby looked around, still lying on the ground, and saw Mercury squatting next to her. "Yep, this is her, alright." For the first time, a bit of Ruby's fear was smothered under a surge of hatred for the boy who had attacked and mocked her while one of her friends was being tricked into murdering another. He was wearing the same cocky grin now that he had then, on the darkest day in Vale's history. She looked around, realizing she was back at the temple, sitting on the raised stone floor, the dust coming from what was left of the mossy coating. The pentagram was still lit, causing shadows to dance on the ancient pillars. Mercury stood back up, rejoining Emerald as they, Cinder and Salem stared at Ruby.

 _Well._ said head-Weiss, just as snippy as ever. _This is certainly a predicament you've gotten yourself into. I suppose you could try talking your way out?_ Ruby tried to speak, but the words became caught in her throat as she coughed again. The others were looking at Salem, which watched Ruby with a searching expression for some time before speaking. "Bring her through the gate. I think I can find some use for her." As Mercury took a step towards her, Ruby scrambled to her feet in a bid to escape, but what little strength she had regained failed her as she stumbled against a pillar, gasping for breath. Mercury rolled his eyes, grabbed her around the waist, and slung her over his shoulder.

Cinder stepped up, looking right at the somewhat dazed Ruby. She raised her hand, the long white glove still in place, and pointed her palm directly at the huntress. Ruby looked up just in time to see a miniature version of the portal that Salem had emerged from appear in her hand, making the same bloodcurling noise the larger one had. Something emerged from the tiny portal that sent a spark of adrenaline through Ruby: what looked like a tiny, beetle-like Grimm. Ruby struggled as best she could, but that wasn't much, and she was only able to watch as the creature spat a thick stream of something black at her, which covered her mouth and quickly wrapped around her face to solidify into a kind of tough webbing, effectively gagging her.

It spat again, this time sending the webbing out to bind her wrists. Cinder cleared her throat imperiously, and Mercury diligently turned around. Ruby felt the same webbing then bind her feet. Even if she were stronger, there was little she could do at this point.

Salem turned away and stepped back through the portal, Cinder quickly following. Emerald and Mercury exchanged an uncertain look, before holding a quick and silent game of rock-paper-scissors. Mercury chose rock, while Emerald chose paper. He sighed and she grinned, and Mercury stepped up to the portal, hesitated for a moment, and then stepped in. Ruby's eyes fluttered open just in time to catch one last glimpse of Emerald's sly smile before everything went swirling black and red. Teleporting involuntarily for the second time in as many minutes, Ruby took a breath... but there was no crushing sensation this time. It was a bit cold, but that was all.

The chill faded after a moment as Mercury stepped out of the portal and walked forward a couple feet before stopping. From her position, all Ruby could see was the archway he had just exited, a swirling gateway to match its counterpart in the Mistralian woods occupying it. After a moment, a dark figure appeared in the portal, before Emerald materialized. Emerald did a double-take at how close Ruby and Mercury were, meeting Ruby's eyes by accident. Ruby shot the most hateful glare she could at Penny's murderer, which seemed to rattle Emerald momentarily, if only for how unexpected it was. However, it was when Emerald broke Ruby's gaze and looked around that she seemed even more shaken.

Realizing that something must have not only spooked Emerald like that, but also caused Merc to stop, Ruby couldn't deny some curiosity, and, summoning what strength she had, craned her head around to look over Mercury.

It was the strangest, eeriest place the three teens had ever seen. Rough, cracked red ground was scattered with clumps of violet crystals, which almost resembled Dust crystals at a glance, yet lacked the same sheen. The splintered moon hung in the sky, its white light reflecting off a grey mist that clung to the broken landscape. Some of the rocks seemed to give off the faintest crimson glow. Far ahead, Cinder and Salem were conversing near a black stone wall. Ruby looked back at the portal, and was somewhat relieved to see that it was still there. Nevertheless...

 _Okay..._ Ruby thought to herself, _there's a small, tiny little chance that I might, maybe, be in just a teensy bit over my head. Possibly._

A familiar clinking sound heralded Cinder's approach, and after a moment, Ruby heard her smooth voice address Emerald. "We need to go; we have a task to see to. Mercury, stay here, Salem wants you for something."

"Right..." he said, an uncertain edge to his voice. Cinder and Emerald walked into the portal and were gone. Mercury shifted, presumably to look at Salem, and after a moment, started walking. She could hear Salem walking ahead, presumably leading the way somewhere.

Her strength slowly returning, Ruby craned her head around more, trying to get a better impression of the alien landscape, when she spotted something that made her heart jump into her throat.

To her left and Mercury's right, not even _fifty feet away_ , marching along the stone seemingly without a care in the world, was an enormous Deathstalker. Massive even for one of its kind, the thirty-meter black and white scorpion, with its thick armor and bulbous yellow stinger, was scuttling along, clicking its pincers, staring ahead like it didn't even see the juicy humans right next to it. And Mercury, paradoxically, didn't move or run or attack, or even seem to notice the behemoth.

Ruby began to struggle and writhe, shouting muffled cries under the webbed gag and kicking Mercury's chest, doing her best to get his attention and warn him of the Deathstalker before it saw them. "Ow! Hey, stop!" the boy snapped in surprise, nearly dropping her as he twisted around to adjust his grip. Ruby whipped her head around in confusion, looking back and forth between Mercury and the Grimm. There was no way he didn't see it, he was _looking right at it!_ As she kept struggling, he dropped her wholesale onto the rocky ground.

"Fine! You seem strong enough to walk, so walk!" he said, grabbing her by the arm and hoisting her up. Now that he could see her head, she met his eyes to get his attention, and then began looking back and forth from him to the aberration. She only briefly noticed Salem, some ways ahead, stopping and turning to look at them impatiently. Merc looked at the Deathstalker in confusion for a moment as it slowly trundled away, before a look of comprehension passed over his face, replaced almost immediately with an amused smirk. "Oh, haha, you think... oh, man, I shoulda thought of that..." he turned to look at Salem. "She's freaking because she thinks we're going to be attacked."

At these words, Ruby furrowed her brows and looked around. The gigantic Deathstalker had stopped to turn and look at the commotion, and was now gawking at her stupidly, but not attacking. She also spotted a nearby rock where several birdlike Grimm - at first she thought they were Nevermores, but closer examination revealed them to be more like vultures in appearance - watching her. She scanned the surrounding environs, and began to spot more Grimm in the distance, the combination of her keen, sniper's perception and lifelong fixation on the Creatures of Grimm allowing her to name most of them even from here, as well as identify several she had never seen.

"Mercury." Salem said in mild impatience. "Bring her."

He straightened up with a frightened expression, having seemingly just remembered who he was dealing with. "Right." He grabbed Ruby and began to pull her along. She didn't struggle, her mind numb with what she was seeing, as she began to slowly come to the truth, the _impossible_ truth.

Ruby looked ahead, at the creature that was leading them on. It looked like a woman, and moved and spoke like a woman. But Ruby was beginning to gain some idea of what it actually was.

And that revelation disturbed her to her very core.

Salem led the two along the inhospitable-looking land for a few minutes, Mercury following close behind while hauling Ruby along by her arm. Before long, they reached what appeared to be a sort of glade ringed by old, mostly broken cobblestone walls. Salem lazily waved a hand, and a section of the ground morphed upwards into a chair, in which it sat. Mercury shoved Ruby to the ground a few feet in front of the chair. Ruby pulled herself up to her knees and twisted to glare at him.

"I have one other task for you." said Salem, eyes flashing red.

The same crimson sheen flickered across Mercury's eyes for a moment as he blinked and shook his head slightly. Ruby could only assume that something had been communicated telepathically, as he then turned and left without another word, passing between the walls and leaving the Girl and the Witch alone.

They stared at each other for a long while, both maintaining quite neutral expressions.

"So." said Salem at last, speaking softly. "It's been some time since I've met one of your kind. I thought the last of you died some... mmm... fifty years ago. I had a feeling some of you may have survived... hiding like children from the dark... but to find you colluding with my old sparring partners... how interesting." It leaned forward. "You may not know much... Ozpin always was one for compartmentalization." Ruby's heart skipped another beat at the mention of the headmaster. "But whatever you _do_ know... I'd like to take a peak."

Salem opened its mouth, and a pair of burning orange lights, like tiny hot coals, appeared within the dark recesses. Ruby's eyes widened, and she tried to shuffle back to distance herself from Salem, as what appeared to be a miniature King Taijitu slithered out of Salem's mouth. The serpentine Grimm, about six inches thick and staring at Ruby with glowing eyes, hissed as a good five feet of it slipped from Salem's maw. The snake opened its jaws, and before Ruby could react, it struck, lashing out and sinking two pointed fangs into her right temple.

As the pain seared in her skull, Ruby found herself falling into old memories... she was sitting in bed, confused and sad, thinking about Pyrrha... and her Uncle Qrow was talking to her, explaining something. _Silver eyes._ She still wasn't quite sure what it all meant... she had some kind of power, but no idea how to use it. _Well, how informative._ Salem's voice rang out in Ruby's mind. _So you really don't know anything about that... but, ah... you do know something, something you don't want me to see... of course, you didn't come out here alone, did you?_ Ruby felt a sudden stab of fear as the images shifted to the inn inside Mistral where she had been staying. Staying with Jaune, Nora and Ren.

The fangs detached and Ruby lay against the ground, staring up at Salem. The snake was slithering back into the creature's smile... a knowing, anticipating smile. _What have I done?_

AN: Alright, everyone, here is the first chapter of the larger continuation of My Pretty, as requested by my readers. While I'm not sure if I'm super happy how this part came out, I'm looking forward to the next chapter, which I think should be a lot better. Sorry this one took so long, incidentally.


	4. My Pretty, Chapter 2

AN: Sorry, everyone, bit of a short chapter. I'm working hard, I promise, but my creativity is coming at a slow drip.

Ruby sat against the wall in the back of the aphotic stone cell, staring at the floor. Having occupied the cell for almost three hours, she was practically at the cusp of fear and dread giving in to boredom, but the illusion was promptly severed as she sensed the distinctive chill of Salem approaching.

The creature appeared outside the stone bars, gliding forward with hardly a sound, and looked in at Ruby, smiling slightly.

"I'm about to go find your friends, little one. I'd just as soon take them alive... I don't suppose there's anything you'd like to tell me that would make that easier?"

Ruby glared back at the witch defiantly, and after several seconds of them locking eyes, Salem kept talking. "Your contumacy is refreshing. You remind me of another silver-eye I killed, oh, two hundred years ago, now. He was... _bold_ , that one. Much bolder than any of the opposition I've had since. All dull, dull like Ozpin..."

Mentioning Ozpin again piqued Ruby's attention once more, and she did her best to hide her eagerness to learn what had become of her mentor. Unfortunately, she must have given some tell, as Salem's smile grew, and the enemy leaned forward, and clasped one of the bars with a pale hand. "Ah, Ozpin. You must have been one of his favorite little soldiers. The old man, still playing that he's a general... still playing that he's young."

"He's smarter than you." Ruby finally said, angrily. "Wiser."

"Yes, he'd certainly seem that way to young, impressionable minds. The silver-haired eccentric, with his cryptic statements and elaborate, insipid metaphors that almost always come back to _chess_ in some way. Such a superficial way to convince people you know what you're doing... that's probably why he surrounds himself with children; so that he'll always have a steady stream of people naïve enough to listen to his inane ramblings."

Ruby forced a crooked smile. "Wow. Cinder really drank your Kool-Aid, didn't she?"

Salem didn't miss a beat at the interruption. "Such a shame I have to satisfy myself with only him to controvert me these days... I guess all the Silver-eyed warriors gave up on their battle. Too busy doing frivolous human things, like eating fast-food and attending parties, and _... baking cookies_..."

The young huntress gritted her teeth at the cheap shot, but she was out of things to say. After waiting for a moment, Salem gave her another vague smile, before turning and gliding away.

oOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo

Rust wasn't a particularly large settlement; though not the smallest in the periphery of Mistral, at only a population of 12,000, it wasn't the sort of village one expected to last long in times like these. With the Kingdoms on the brink of war and Grimm attacks reaching their greatest intensity in years, one would think Rust to be swallowed by the dirt it sprouted from.

And yet, it had held. Hardy and resilient, and with high walls, Rust had managed to survive to this point without any kind of significant losses, and the people there intended to keep it that way. One manner in which they fought back was atypical in the face of the usual strategies of fortifying defenses, shoring up supply lines and recruiting additional forces: celebration. The people of Rust were obsessed with revelry, finding an excuse to throw at least one large-scale celebration every month.

The intended reason for this was to keep everyone happy, reducing negative emotions so as to avoid attracting the usual enemies. In practice, it sometimes worked, though what was more effective was the constant work that went into these festivals, which kept a lot of people distracted from their problems.

Ultimately, for both expected and unorthodox reasons, Rust was as sturdy as they come outside the Kingdoms.

Presently, they were in the middle of their best-known celebration: the Orthoclase Festival, which was thrown once every three months, when the moon shone its brightest. The town square was decorated in multicolored lights, packed with people, and bristling with the sounds of music and smells of food.

But the merriment failed to ease one young man's mind. Sitting in the window of his room in the local inn, Jaune Arc gazed out at the lights of the distant festival, looking, but not truly seeing. His sword sat on his lap; he ran his thumb over the flat of the blade as he thought. His legs, hanging over the three story drop, swung slightly as he stared into space. Jaune liked to think of himself as a decent logician; he'd always had a way with seeing how to get around a tricky problem. His tactics had apparently impressed so much, that Professor Ozpin had named him leader of Team JNPR, a decision which had surprised him at the time, and which he still sometimes wondered about.

But at the end of the day, whether he was a good leader or not, Jaune knew he was a good problem-solver. Which made it all the more taxing that he couldn't figure out where Ruby had gone.

The four of them had followed what they were sure was a solid lead into the forest, but had discovered at a certain point in the evening that Ruby had simply vanished. One moment, she had been with the group, but when they had to drop into stealth for several minutes, she had apparently slipped away, and even more strangely, hadn't found them again, or made any attempt to contact them in the several hours since. The team - Nora had taken to nicknaming them "RNJR" - had retreated back to Rust after figuring out that the lead was a distraction, as it had been agreed upon as a rally point.

In theory, all they needed to do was wait for Ruby to come and find them. Unfortunately, it was taking a while.

What bothered Jaune was that if something had actually happened to her, they had no idea where to begin their search; they had lost track of her in over a mile of forest, and nobody could cross terrain quickly when they were in a hurry better than Ruby Rose. And thus, their hands were tied. They simply had to wait here, either for Ruby to find her way back, or call them.

Jaune was snapped out of his thoughts by a quiet knock at the door. _That'd be Ren_ , he thought. After sharing a dorm room with his teammates for most of a year, he knew how to tell their knocks apart.

"Come in," he called, and sure enough, Ren entered.

"Nothing yet?" he asked.

Jaune turned around on the sill, bringing his legs back into the room. "Nope."

"I'm certain she'll be fine. Albite is here, he wanted to see you."

"I'll be right there."

Ren nodded and stepped out, leaving the door open a crack. Jaune turned back to the window, taking a breath of the cool, night air, before hopping down to the carpet and walking away.

What he hadn't been paying attention to was the wall. The main perimeter wall of Rust, about sixty feet high and made of brick, was visible from the inn, about ten blocks away. And tonight, standing atop one of the low parapets along the wall, was a figure. Dark, with her cloak fluttering in the wind, and red-and-black eyes scanning the village. Salem sighed, panning her gaze slowly across the buildings. She knew that the silver-eyed warrior had three allies, all of whom were hiding here, in this small town. Specifically, Ruby's memories had indicated a certain inn...

"Ah..." Salem said. "There we are."

"Um... excuse me, miss?" One of the wall guards had stepped up behind her. He wore simple iron armor, and carried a scoped rifle. "You're not supposed to be up here... are you lost?"

Salem slowly turned around, still perched on the parapet, and smiled at the guard, who took a step back at the sight of her face, his own face blanching. "Yes," she replied. "Would you be so kind as to escort me into town?" Salem snapped her fingers, and the guard's eyes glazed over, his expression turning neutral and his posture relaxing. The hypnotized man turned and began to walk away along the wall, and the witch stepped down from her perch and followed.

As the guard passed by a flickering torch, he cast a shadow on the bricks behind him. Salem stepped up and placed her foot onto the shadow, before immediately, she began to dissolve, melting into darkness that flowed down into the shadow and became a part of it. He kept walking, his shadow reconfiguring to look like Salem's silhouette.

The guard wandered through the battlements and stairways, passing by his comrades, who failed to notice his misshapen shadow.

oOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo

Tall, thin, and with neat, white hair and a grey suit, white bowtie and spats, Quinn Albite stood on a stately veranda, looking out at the festival as it wound down. As Rust's Director of Recreation, he was a very busy man, constantly battling a voracious workload as he juggled the time, locations and resources needed for the village's celebratory lifestyle. He took pride in his work, considering himself to have one of the most important jobs in town. Ignorance was bliss, after all, and Quinn most certainly did his best to keep his people too busy and active to think about what waited outside the protective brick walls bordering their home.

"Mr. Albite?" Jaune asked, stepping out to the veranda with Ren and Nora. "What's up?"

Albite faced the young hunters and flashed a winning smile. "Just checking in, Mr. Arc. As always, Rust is happy to play host to fine young fighters such as yourselves, and so I consider it a part of my natural responsibilities to make sure you're enjoying your time here."

"I... appreciate that, but we're fine. Nothing to worry about. Actually, I thought you'd be busy with the Orthoclase festival."

Albite waved a dismissive hand. "Ah. Once the festival starts, it's usually more or less capable of running itself until it burns out and everyone goes home. Has there been any word from your missing partner?"

"Not yet."

"I see... well, you're welcome to stay as long as you need to wait for her to arrive."

"That's generous, but if she doesn't show up tonight, I think..." Jaune trailed off in mid-sentence, looking questioningly at Ren, who simply shrugged. "...Think we're probably leaving tomorrow to look for her? We're not sure yet."

"Well, I wish you the best of luck. These are dark days, and we need every able body we can get."

"We don't need luck!" Nora piped up. "We have GIGANTINC grenade-hammers and sniper scythes!"

Albite opened his mouth to say something, hesitated, and finally settled on an amiable smile. Jaune returned it. "Well, good night, Mr. Albite." He led his friends away, and Albite turned back to look out over the village, noting the dimming lights and lessening noise of the far away festival. What he didn't notice was the solitary guard walking through the street below, tailed by his misshapen shadow...

AN: Please remember reviews, they very much help me.


	5. My Pretty, Chapter 3

Jaune splashed water on his face and looked at his reflection, unusually gaunt-looking in the bathroom's torchlight. He took a deep breath and ran over the schedule again in his head. He was staying awake - he'd grab some coffee from downstairs to help with that - while his teammates rested, so he could stay on vigil for Ruby. If she still hadn't returned in two hours, he would rouse Ren and Nora so they could all go search for her. He wasn't sure where they would start, having already scoured the stretch of forest where they had last seen her, but hopefully she would show on her own, and it wouldn't be a problem.

The torch flickered low for a few moments, causing Jaune to look at its reflection as it flared back up. _Weird. Looks like a fresh torch. What kind of crappy materials are they working with out here?_ He went ahead and wiped his face off on his sleeve, picked up his weapon from beside the sink, and headed out, making his way to the main floor of the inn.

===+My Pretty+===

The door to the roof opened and Jaune stepped out into the chill night air. Walking out onto the largely stone roof and holding a small steaming cup, he used his free hand to pull up his hood against the cold. He stopped at the edge, looking out to see the dimming lights of the festival beginning to simmer out, and took a sip. He started to consider what he should do to pass the time, and had just about settled on training with his weapon, when he heard a loud noise behind him; the sound of something heavy falling over. Startled, he dropped his coffee and whirled around, reaching for his sword and gritting his teeth against the pain of some of the hot liquid splashing against his ankle.

A man had collapsed onto the roof, right outside the door Jaune had used to ascend. It was a wall guard, in simple armor and carrying a scoped rifle. He slumped heavily to the ground, and Jaune, after only a moment's confused hesitation, ran to check on him. "Hey, are you alright!? Talk to me!" He kneeled down to feel for the man's pulse, but found nothing. The guard was dead. Jaune considered what to do next, hesitating again. It was rare for him to find himself in such an inexplicable situation.

Four feet behind him, silent as the depths of space, Salem stood idly, hands clasped as she listened to the boy's thoughts with mild amusement. Exhaustion and fatigue were being wrestled by will and logic, flickers of sad empathy for the guard, and over it all a curtain of grief and pain. Mildly intrigued, the witch took a deeper look into that and was struck with modest surprise to discover that he was mourning the pretender maiden that Cinder had made such a fuss about slaying. Small world.

But that momentary flight of fancy ended as Jaune stood, having made up his mind about his course of action, to alert the other guards at once, before rousing his comrades. It was irrelevant. Salem reached out and took hold of the back of his neck, paralyzing him instantly. "Cut off the head of the snake, and the body dies," she muttered quietly.

===+My Pretty+===

Surprising no one, a cold, rocky floor in a cell in a castle in the middle of an inhospitable grimm-infested waste was rather uncomfortable.

Recent events had more than tired Ruby; she felt drained, hollowed out and lifeless. But try as she might, there was no sleep to be found in her cage. Wherever she tried to lay, there was always some piece of rock or patch of damp that simply made it impossible, no matter how thickly she tried to bundle her cloak over the problem area. But the terrain wasn't the worst part.

As she lay on her back in about the twentieth pitiful attempt to find comfort, staring upward, she reflected on how nobody in the world liked the feeling of being watched. But at least they only had to be worried about _people_ watching them. And the feeling of being stared at by another human being was something Ruby would easily take in trade against being watched silently and keenly by several dozen Grimm. As she had first started to lay down, she had become aware that the building she was in lacked a ceiling; above her, perched on crumbled stone and silhouetted against the red sky, were nearly a hundred small, birdlike Creatures of Grimm. Uniformly there were jet black feathers and blood red eyes, but she could see a lot of different varieties; nevermores of course, and also more of the vulture-like ones she had seen earlier, as well as some that more closely resembled kingfishers, though more ragged and wicked looking. She could have even sworn one or two of them were just ordinary crows.

She stared at the birds, and they stared at her, the only sound the occasional rustling of their feathers. Ruby wished she knew more about her silver-eye powers that everyone seemed to make such a big deal out of, if nothing else so she could blast the creepy flock away. Unfortunately, she had to settle for sighing in exhaustion. For minutes more, she closed her eyes and continued lying there. Her back hurt, but she had become too tired to care. Until, that is, she shifted position slightly, and noted that a piece of loose rock moved with her.

The chance to do something rebellious, to exercise even the slightest amount of freedom, seized Ruby like a flame, and a small shot of adrenaline shot up her spine. She rolled over quickly, grabbed the jagged pebble, and with a high-pitched yell, hucked it through the bars and at the enemy birds. They took off in a panicked flurry of beating wings, swirling around each other for a moment. There was a cacophony of sounds before they spiraled into the air together, flying away against the crimson sky. Ruby watched them fade, smiling against herself. She lay back down with a satisfied sigh... and within a minute, fell asleep at last.

===+My Pretty+===

Ren's eyes opened, and he sat upright in total darkness. It was hard to say what had woken him; the room was completely without light, and quiet. There wasn't even a breeze. But even though he was tired, Ren simply knew he was supposed to be awake. He pulled himself out of bed and began the task of retrieving his clothes, finding them easily despite the low visibility. After dressing like clockwork, he collected his thoughts and left, opening the door and stepping out into the hall.

Wooden walls and floors. It was only dimly lit by lamps, so his eyes didn't require any adjustment. Standing still, he took a moment to reflect on what he was doing out here... why had he woken up so suddenly? He couldn't remember what he had been dreaming about...

Ren closed his eyes, took a breath, and focused on his Aura. He was more talented at manipulating it than his teammates, having focused a significant amount of his training on channeling it. In particular, he had always excelled at using it to sense other entities, by their souls or lack thereof. Casting his own soul outward like ripples in a pond, he could feel everyone in the building, including Nora... but not Jaune. He furrowed his brow at this oddity. With no better notions, he opened his eyes, stretched, and set out to find his teammate.

As he walked, he continued to muster his aura as best he could; he was still sleepy, and the extrasensory power was wobbly as a result. He made his way to the staircase, with stairs leading both up and down, and began to climb upward, focusing on his breathing as he went. Suddenly, he paused, foot still in midair over the seventh step. Something felt odd. Now that he was more woken up, he was sensing something he had missed before... for a moment, it felt like there was a grimm in the building, but... no, that wasn't quite right. Like a grimm, but not a grimm. Not like a grimm, but definitely a grimm. Whatever it was, it didn't exactly have a soul, but it didn't exactly lack one either. It was almost like it had the opposite of a soul.

Ren was snapped out of his focus by several loud squeaking sounds; he looked down to see rats, over a dozen of them, running in terror down the stairs, fleeing from something above. He realized that the strange feeling had been coming from above; whatever this being was, in was on the next floor. He gave his arms a flick, snapping his pistols out of his sleeves and into his hands. Now armed, he began, cautiously, to move upstairs.

The last few rats passed him by as he reached the top of the flight. He took a moment to steel himself, and kicked the door open into the next hall, bringing his guns to bare. It was identical to the hall below; all wood, dimly lit, lanterns. And just like the one below, it was vacant. All the doors to the rooms were closed, and the corridor was quiet. He walked forward slowly; his shoes were soft and quiet, and his astute situational awareness allowed him to avoid spots on the floor that could creak loudly. Ren was a ghost as he stalked ahead. He thought about turning back to rouse Nora, but Jaune's absence on top of Ruby's brought a certain mild panic; he wanted to at least identify what was up here, figure out what he was dealing with, before he left.

A sudden chill breeze. The lanterns all flickered and died, plunging everything into blackness. Ren froze in place; he was not startled, but it would be foolish to move without knowing what he was moving into.

The light returned, and Ren was no longer alone. At the end of the corridor, Salem stood patiently, smiling serenely at him, her hands clasped in front of her. She almost looked like a shop attendant waiting on an indecisive customer. Ren took aim quickly, but the lanterns died once more, before relighting after only two seconds, and the corridor was empty. To be safe, he pulled both triggers, firing a burst at where the creature had been standing, but they simply punched holes into the wooden door beyond. The shots echoed in the quiet passage.

Ren wasted no time turning parallel to the corridor; now his chest and back were facing the immediate walls, and he had one gun pointed in each direction, his right at Salem's last location and his left back at the stairway he had come from. He began to look back and forth between the points, waiting for a shot.

"I don't know what you are," he said to the darkness, "and I don't know what you've done to my friends. But we have travelled far, abandoning comfort and friends in favor of hardship and fear. We have sacrificed everything in the path of a singular goal with meaning both grand and personal to us. And I speak for our entire group when I insist that you will NOT be stopping us here today."

The lights died and returned, and Salem stood thirty feet to his left. Ren looked to her and fired a controlled burst, but again, darkness, and when the light returned, she was gone. More dark, more light, and she was twenty-five feet to his right. He fired. Dark, light, gone. Dark, light, twenty feet to his left. Another burst, predictable results: dark, light, gone. The pattern continued, with Salem getting closer and closer with each passing phase of darkness; sixteen feet to his right, twelve to his left, eight to his right, five to his left... finally, she stood at point blank range, her smiling face inches away from the barrel of his right gun.

Ren turned his gaze upon her, narrowing his eyes, believing he had finally gotten ahead of the pattern, and pulled the trigger...

In a way, the resulting _click_ that informed him he had expended the last of his ammunition was louder than any of the shots. Salem quickly reached out to put a finger to his forehead, paralyzing him and causing him to fall to the floor. "I don't know. You looked stopped to me."

===+My Pretty+===

It hadn't been a very pleasant nap, plagued by uncomfortable dreams, but in her exhausted state Ruby was still mildly irritated to be woken by what felt like something sharp poking her in the face. Her eyes fluttered open to the blurry sight of something, so she quickly sat upright and surprise. "AH! Wuggawhat?" She blinked several times at the little creature next to her.

It was certainly no grimm, that much was clear immediately. It was mostly rust-colored, and looked like a kind of insect or spider about the size of her hand, which it scuttled along next to, prompting her to pull her hand away in alarm. After a second, she decided to simply get her entire body away from the thing, so she quickly shuffled to her feet and backed away a few steps, growing momentarily dizzy from standing up too fast. The little creature didn't pursue her; it just stopped where it was and looked up in her direction.

Ruby rubbed her eyes and took another look at the bug in the dim red light of her cell. She now realized that it wasn't an animal at all; it was actually mechanical, made of whirring metal parts and bolts. She kneeled back down for a closer look, and it slowly crawled towards her. It came to a stop a few inches away and stared again. Her silver eyes directly met the two tiny little cameras that seemed to serve as the robot's eyes. She could see tiny gears and cogs working within its body, and a shard of the purplish crystal growing in abundance all over Salem's domain wired into the center. Something about the circular lenses of its eyes, combined with the clockwork seemed oddly nostalgic, like it reminded her of someone.

This feeling was solidified when she noticed the emblem carved into its thorax, like a perfectly circular gear.

"...Professor?"

===+My Pretty+===

Like Ren, Nora woke very suddenly, but the disturbance for her wasn't anything so ethereal as a bad feeling; it was the very immediate and tangible sound of gunfire from above. Leaping from her bed, Nora wasted no time seizing her weapon and shouldering her way out of the door. She could see the door to Ren's room standing open, which shot an immediate dose of panic into her mind, not helped by her realizing that the gunfire she heard sounded like StormFlower. "REN! JAUNE!"

Ignoring the last straggler rats that scurried from the stairwell, and quickly configuring her weapon into hammer form, she slid to a stop at the bottom of the stairs and looked up, listening for anything. The ruckus had stopped; all seemed quiet now, aside from some confused yelling from people throughout the building who had been awoken by all the gunfire. Nora began to barrel up the stairs, still yelling for her partner. "Reeeeennnnn!" She reached the top to find the door broken open and lunged into the hall, spotting Salem as soon as she came to a stop.

Ren was nowhere in sight, but Salem was already watching Nora as she came into view. Nora stared back at the thing before her, caught off guard. "Lovely evening, isn't it?" Salem said politely. "I don't get out much anymore, so it's nice to be able to take in the local atmosphere when I can."

Jaune was the team's strategist, but Nora listened when he talked. And from what she had learned, it was a bad idea for her, with her weapon, to take on an unknown opponent in close quarters. Nora whirled around in place, swinging Magnhild wide and slamming it into the wall, the grenade loaded into the head detonating in a burst of pink lightning that blasted the wall into a shower of splinters. Salem, actually taken by surprise by this turn of events, watched as Nora jumped out into the night, standing on the head of her hammer and launching herself away.

Combat-rolling to a stop on an opposite rooftop, she turned and reconfigured Magnhild into a grenade launcher and fired a single canister at the hole she had just made, caving it in with debris in another blast of pink; she hoped that this would buy her time. With that done, she took a few steps back and waited; the hope was that if Ren or Jaune were around, they would have heard the explosion and would come to her. She stood in the night air for several seconds, finger on the trigger.

Her wait came to a sudden end as the blockage simply blasted itself apart. Salem, holding her palm out, stepped from the light into the night air, stopping at the edge and gazing down at Nora as she lowered her arm. "You asked for it!" Nora yelled up, taking aim again. She emptied her launcher, firing all of her remaining grenades. Before they could find their target, a swirling black-and-red portal appeared before Salem, the rounds going in. A second similar portal appeared behind her, and the cylinders emerged and flew off into the sky, leaving pink trails of smoke behind. As the portals vanished, Nora grumbled in frustration and relocated.

Turning around, she ran across the roof while opening Magnhild to reload. She slipped grenades in one by one and jumped a gap onto the next roof. Behind her, Salem smiled, before dissolving into a swarm of flies; nasty, ink-black little things with mean red eyes. The swarm flew after Nora, barely visible in the dark. The girl in pink kept moving, jumping from roof to roof and snapping her launcher shut again, now heavy with a fresh reload. Her attention was drawn by a noticeable buzzing sound to her right.

Looking as she ran, she couldn't see much at first, but after a few seconds began to notice dots of black swarming in the lamplight. The first few flies caught up, flying in from the side and attacking her with stings, chipping away at her aura bit by bit. Nora fired two grenades at the swarm, but the explosives just passed through, detonating against the wall in the distance. More flies moved in, and dozens of them swirled around her, straining her defenses. She slid to a hard stop and tried something else out of desperation; she flipped her launcher back into a hammer and began swinging wildly, the head passing through the swarm. It didn't do much, but she began detonating the grenade loaded into the top repeatedly, which at least seemed to disturb the swarm, but not by much.

"Come on!" she yelled, before turning and simply jumping off the roof. This at least bought her a moment as the swarm whirled in surprise for a moment; she demolished several crates with her landing and took off across the cobblestone street, making for an opposing alleyway. The flies pulsed after her, and began catching up quickly. Nora hurried another reload, fumbling a grenade in her hand. "Come on, come on!" she kept repeating, growing increasingly flustered and panicked. How was anyone supposed to fight _flies?_

The swarm caught up. Once again, they surrounded her, biting and stinging. Dropping her still-unloaded weapon, Nora simply tried the last-ditch tactic of swiping at them with her hands. The last of her aura crackled away in pink, and the stingers began to find unprotected skin. "Argh!" she yelled in pain, finally dropping to the ground and simply holding her arms up in a vain final attempt at self-defense. Slowly, but quite, quite surely, the paralyzing stings began to take effect. Her arms grew numb first and dropped, and Nora could only sit and grimace, eyes shut tight, as the assault continued. Frustration and fear forced a tear out of her eyes nevertheless.

Finally, the fight was over, and Nora keeled over and was still on the cobblestone. The swarm abandoned her, coalescing back into Salem, who stood over the young huntress, still smiling. "Thank you for that, all of you. It's been so long since I've had a chance to stretch my legs. Of course I could have simply compelled you all to come with me, or simply sent another proxy... but oh well. The past is the past." As she spoke, something scuttled out of the shadows.

The spiderlike grimm was nearly the size of a car, with a small head and thorax compared to its long, spindly, daddy-long-legs style limbs, and a huge, bulbous yellow abdomen that glowed yellow; it was translucent, and inside, suspended in some kind of amber-colored liquid, Jaune and Ren floated, unconscious. Salem snapped her fingers, and the creature scuttled grotesquely over to Nora to collect her as well.

===+My Pretty+===

A short time later, Salem walked calmly up a forested hill outside of Rust. The captor grimm scuttled slowly behind her, weighed down by the three teenagers it carried. Salem stopped, and turned to look at them. They all appeared to be awake now; able to feel but unable to move, unable to breathe but unable to die. They stared in blank, helpless horror, eyes darting around to take in their situation. They kept looking back at Rust; the village was still quite visible from up here. Salem looked at the village, and back at them.

"Ah, of course," she said. "Thank you so much for reminding me."

She looked down at Rust, raised her hands, and gave a dismissive clap. Nothing happened at first. After a few moments, there was a low growling sound, and dots of red in the darkness. Beowolves began to creep from the shadows, slinking through the foliage and downhill towards the village. There was a crashing sound, and an ursa lumbered out of the trees to follow them. With a withered cry, several large nevermores suddenly passed overhead.

As Jaune, Ren and Nora watched helplessly, the Grimm descended on Rust.

AN: Wow. Is it me, or did that take forever? Sorry, finding energy and inspiration for this story has been a challenge.


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